Page 12 of On the Plus Side
Everly let herself relax into her chair. She met his maybe-grin with a definite one of her own. “It’s always best to say what we mean.”
“He’s an ass, then.”
She snorted.
Sady rolled her eyes. “Dan is Dan. We’re lucky to have Logan here to back him up. And none of this is Everly’s concern, anyway.” She leaned forward and folded her hands over her closed laptop. “We’re here to talk about the production schedule, but I always like to give our new guests a little insight into the show.OTPSis my baby. I conceptualized it, I’m the showrunner, and New Mood gives me complete creative control. My goal is to celebrate bodies and people who are too often ignored by the media. And to do it without adding to the stereotypes and microaggressions that are such an ingrained part of our culture when it comes to fat people.”
“Like when someone tells you that you have such a pretty face,” Everly muttered. It was one of her mother’s most favorite phrases.
“Exactly. Or when straight-size people complain to us about being fat.”
“Or the way most stores are only ‘size inclusive’”—Everly tossed air quotes around the words—“online. Because, god forbid we’re allowed to try anything on. So now we have to pay extra shipping to return things, as if we aren’t already paying more for our clothes anyway.” She didn’t realize until she stopped to take a breath how fast and forcefully she was speaking. She cleared her throat. “Sorry, I get real riled up about the fat tax.”
Sady held up her hand. “We don’t apologize for speaking our truth here.” She shook her head. “The ‘fat tax.’ I love it. Share that one with Jazzy and Stanton for sure.” Flashing Everly a welcoming smile, she went on. “All right. You obviously get where I’m coming from, so that’s the end of my spiel. Let’s get down to brass tacks. I’m assuming you’ve taken a look at the contracts?”
“I did.” Digging into her purse, Everly produced a manila envelope with the signed copies inside. She’d studied the contract for hours, looking up every legal phrase she didn’t know and pestering her cousin in law school when that didn’t help. There didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary in it, but she still felt a bit like Faust, signing her soul away.
Sady accepted the envelope, and pulling out the stack of papers, flipped to a particular page. “I like to point out to our guests that, unlike most reality shows, we do not include a right to defame in the contract.” She angled the document toward Everly. “This protects you from being misrepresented by the network or the show, and, I hope, will set up a good-faith relationship between us.”
Everly nodded. “Got it.” It was easy to trust Sady on this. From what she’d seen on the reunion specials and read online, there was very little negativity from guests about how they were portrayed on the show. Only Veronica, who complained that they’d overplayed how much she disliked her makeover. But Veronica had been a drama queen throughout her episodes, so Everly wasn’t sure how much she believed her.
“Great.” Sady gestured for Logan’s tablet, then scrolled through it for a second before finally tapping on an icon. “So, the schedule…” She set the device between them, a multilayered spreadsheet open on the page.
Everly’s heart sang. It was beautifully color coded.
“We will be starting next week, and filming usually takes about a month and a half, maybe two. We’ve booked some rooms over at the Seahorse Inn in Monmouth Cove, but we’ll be back and forth between there and our Boston offices. Except for travel days, we’ll do most filming Friday through Monday—”
“Wait. We won’t be filming every single day?” What a relief. Everly had assumed she’d have a camera on her nonstop, and the thought hadhad her on edge. No one could be expected to be perfect at all times when they were being watched twenty-four seven.
“We will for the first week or so,” Logan chimed in. “I’ll basically be following you everywhere as we gather shots for the early episodes.”
Everly’s eyes snapped toward him. “Everywhere?”
“Everywhere.”
This sounded like a complete nightmare. “What if I have a date?”
“I’m coming.”
“Dinner with my mom.”
“And me.”
“Shopping? The gym? A mani-pedi?”
“I’ll be there.”
“What if I want to hang out with my vibrator?” Something about this man summoned the side of Everly that she tended to curb in public. But she just wanted to see him laugh. Smile. Do anything but glower.
Logan’s eyes popped wide, and under his beard, his tan skin flushed.
Bingo.This time, Everly didn’t try to hide her laugh.
Across from them, Sady chuckled. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Poor Logan is easily scandalized.” She shot him a playful wink, earning the first real smile Everly had witnessed from him. It was tiny, the smallest lift of his lips, but his blue eyes brightened like a light someone had just switched on. “He’ll be shadowing you within reasonable limits, obviously. Mostly at work or when you go out. The point is to get as much pre-makeover footage as possible so audiences can really see how you’re changing over the course of the episodes.”
She pointed back at the tablet and its various columns and rows. “After that, the show will be airing as we film, so Logan and I will spend the mid-week up here reviewing footage and seeing what the editors are putting together. We’ll follow the usual format. Two weeks of you bonding with the hosts: interviews, wardrobe day, a few outings, that kind ofthing.” Her purple-painted nail traced over the schedule. “Then the next three weeks, we ease into the transformation stuff: shopping, a few trips, time with your family, career planning, the actual makeover, etc. And the last week or so is dedicated to the finale.”
At the end of the document, Sady paused. “As you probably know from watching, every guest has an arc that builds toward an important goal or event. Something that really commemorates the big shift happening in their lives.”
